Motorkite Dreaming

The “motorkite” in the title refers to an ultra-light aircraft that is effectively a motorised tricycle with glider-style wings attached. Mates Aiden Glasby and Daryl Clarke decided they would each fly a motorkite from Adelaide to Broome across some of Australia’s most treacherous, inhospitable terrain and film the adventure. That’s the “dreaming” in the title.

Film-maker Charles Hill-Smith immediately said yes to the project. He along with  Glasby and Clarke’s fiancee’s Lexi Keneally and Elsie Tonkin,  Aboriginal guides Carroll Karpany and Bart Sansbury, and unofficial mascot Mylo (a miniature dingo) drove support vehicles through mud, long grass and crocodile infested swamp.

The film is beautifully shot, with Hill-Smith fully exploiting the dynamic texture and palette of the Australian landscape – from the dusty ochre hues of deserts and mountain ranges to the glassy mirrored surface of Lake Eyre. The rare and intimate encounters with Aboriginal communities give depth and resonance to the journey.

The whole enterprise is fraught from the start, with Glasby and Clarke attaining their flying licences barely a week before departure. They seem naive and ill-prepared and the polar differences in their personalities becomes more evident and more problematic as they move deeper into challenging territory – literally and metaphorically. This in turn affects their respective relationships with their partners.

But perhaps the most poignant story, leading to a truly moving moment in the film, is Carroll Karpany’s sense of longing for the ancestral song that his own tribe has lost.

In fact, if there is a criticism it is that there is no backstory and sense of “why” for Glasby and Clarke’s quest. So, while it’s entertaining and visually stunning, it’s hard to get emotionally invested in the journey.

That said, it is still well worth a look.

★★★

In Cinemas August 2016. Info: www.motorkitedreaming.com

By Rita Bratovich